the end of foreign backing for terrorism and the formation of a new government president assad outlines his views on how syria could finally be. a last ditch deal prevents the us from plunging over the fiscal cliff is of. raising taxes on wealthy americans already preventing a nationwide financial disaster. is forced into revealing it knew about a plan to assassinate the leaders of occupy wall street but chose not to warn them their lives were in danger. and also the movie superstar gets a freshly standard russian passport to falling out with the government in france

over super high taxes on the super rich. the look back at the past seven days top stories in the latest developments this is the weekly on. the syrian leader has outlined his vision on how to end almost two years of continued civil conflict one of the key conditions for peace according to president bashar assad is for regional and international powers to stop supporting groups. was following what he said. well there has certainly been rather interesting quotes coming from the syrian president he in fact called to hold an international reconciliation conference to end of the violence and the military conflict which is going on be going on for almost two years now in syria and this initiative according to assad will lead to

a national wide referendum and fair election which is the only way according to the syrian president that the political landscape in this country can be changed but this initiative can only be possible according to assad if the western countries and some regional countries as he put it stop investing into terrorist groups which are fighting to overthrow his his regime has been again pretty much a defining tone saying that the only way that syria will listen to the outside world is through a device not through a dictating well this speech of the syrian president comes amid very serious concerns about the safety of journalists working in syria the year has only just started but already we have a syrian a pro governmental journalist killed this week he was wounded and then taken to the hospital where he later died also my own colleagues from r.t. arabic station he got injured among a group of other journalists who were covering the movement of

a governmental convoy through the country. says that they were shot at by the rebels despite wearing special jackets with the words press on them there also has been an ongoing story of a ukrainian journalist on how to question about who's been missing and nobody knows where she is and whether she's actually alive but the reports that she was kidnapped by the rebels and there was a ransom demand that for her release outraged many organizations with the reports that syria has already been named as the most dangerous country in the world for journalists to work at certainly things are not looking any better at the moment. president sand said that his government is not willing to negotiate with those opposition groups which he considers to be the puppets of the west well earlier i spoke to political analyst marcus papadopoulos who believes that a sad will have a hard job finding any that aunt when president assad says he's not going to talk

to the opposition. to the armed opposition the so-called free syrian army and its political wing of the syrian national council which is a form based opposition movement and it's very important to make this clear in particular for western audiences who are unfortunately not read the full picture it comes to syria the free syrian army is a lethal cocktail or various groups including many islamist groups and many groups linked to al qaida and the free syrian army or the f.s.a. it's more commonly referred to you has been responsible for heinous vial terrorist attacks in the last couple of years in syria so it's it's it's pretty clear why president assad will not talk to the armed opposition and its political wing and the political wing being the syrian national coalition which of course is influenced by the e.u. and the u.s. so who is there left to talk to then much of the opposition is influenced by the west does he talk to them this is another important point to clarify if there is

a domestic opposition. parties which want to see political change in syria but they do not extremist groups islamist groups for example which reside in the syrian national council and also in the free syrian army. almost two years of antigovernment protests change little in bahrain fresh demonstrations shatter against the wall of a police crackdown some experts say it's their brutality that is fueling the uprising. and still to come the u.s. military is now allowed to hold terror suspects for as long as it wants americans or for this thanks to the new national defense authorization act look at that in just a few minutes from now here on r.t. . and of this week barack obama signed a last minute deal that increases taxes on the wealthiest americans and prevented the country of falling over the so-called fiscal cliff the nation was on the brink of a financial nosedive with billions of dollars in tax hikes automatically coming into

effect if the law hadn't been passed in the graph from one awake news thinks that the fate of americans is never been a top priority for the u.s. government is an enemy when the cameras are off and it's time to pass a trillion dollar nearly trillion dollar defense bill they have no problem whatsoever coming to coming together and holding hands up with that kind of a deal together since two thousand and one namely we've been covering this nation by proxy the world by crisis and it doesn't matter who gets hurt who gets by the wayside as long as a special interest is served so is long as it's always under the shadow of a crisis. where it's only when it has to do with acting in behalf of the people of this nation it seems like the people always take a backseat and artie's economics expert max kaiser thinks the deal might bring short term relief but the big problems didn't go anywhere. the fiscal cliff is just more theater bankers and politicians trying to distract people from the underlying

root catastrophe that is a bunch of bankers who are manipulating the system day in and day out destroying the economy it's just more drama more theater and it doesn't really focus on the true underlying problems and we're going to see more of this going forward in two thousand and thirteen anything the tension from the mobs what they're pitchforks and torches there are coming out to these people they want to just delay that day of reckoning for as many months as they can but that day is reckoning twenty thirteen it's comic. and because a report has more financial analysis and full cost for the new variable right now the website. recently leaked f.b.i. documents shows the bureau knew of a plan to assassinate occupy wall street leaders the gave them no warning instead

it chose to keep spying on the movement which it branded a domestic terrorist group as the report not reports. well it's not clear yet why the f.b.i. would neglect to tell activists that there was a potential assassination plot surrounding them what we do know is that new documents obtained by the partnership for the civil justice fund a u.s. human human and civil rights advocacy organization have revealed that the u.s. the f.b.i. the department of homeland security the u.s. military and private corporations all cooperated together to monitor and investigate occupy wall street protesters as quote domestic terrorists and quote criminals now the more shocking revelation the headline of this story is that reportedly buried deep within the government. mentions of a plan to use snipers to assassinate occupy protesters and the movement's leaders in various cities throughout the country these alleged plans were supposed to be taking place in the fall of two thousand and eleven now the names of the groups or

individuals involved in the alleged plot are redacted from the f.b.i. documents but what critics say is clear is that the f.b.i. never alerted any one of the potential any of the potential victims that their lives could possibly be in danger or that there's any threat surrounding them partnership for civil justice fund receive the f.b.i. documents on december twenty second so this is fairly new information and this was after they filed a request under the freedom of information after now many civil rights attorneys previously have accused the f.b.i. of functioning as a de facto intelligence arm for u.s. corporations during the occupy wall street movement and especially as it grew bigger however some critics say they never ever suspected that the f.b.i. would neglect to tell occupy protesters u.s. citizens about an assassination plot surrounding them and we go beyond. street to including the exact wording at all to dot com.

protests calls for reform and police violently lashing out at anti government run is it's a picture that's been haunting bahrain for almost two years now with demonstrators still edging a transition to a democratically elected government as the darwish from the european bahraini organization for human rights claims even the most innocent people affording victim to the police crackdown security forces who are working for the ministry of interior and the hey are practicing a lot of buy in ends and a lot of oil ations to human rights when confronting when pro-democracy protests and behave in the broadest areas here and by having although they are those radical protestors they are the minority and not the majority but they are using such methods to prevent white and security forces from entering their their their religious and attacking on our civilians and children like we witnessed and the big

you have off of the four year old child being attacked by security forces with here gas canisters. and that true catalyst for discord it's no easy thing getting immigration rights russia is a four nations that have according to the un and later we report on what it is that makes a country alluring to you hopefuls. plus union flag protests in northern ireland interest second month of people arrested for allegedly shooting at police more on the unrests after the break. he survived more atrocities. to make a final decision. has changed his life and the world around him. by giving up. hope.

and love to so many children. nikolai the miracle worker on ati. this is the weekly here on our team around

a thousand lawyers protesters have been wreaking havoc over the weekend in the northern irish capital belfast with reports of shots fired at police lines. the city's been witnessing unrest since a decision by the local authorities in december to fly the british union flag only on designated occasions rather than year round jason walsh from the christian science monitor thinks there are deeper reasons for the unrest than the flag being taken down but first it's traditionally throughout its history in a predominantly protestant i don't you know city and the latest census results show that's not really the case any longer it's not likely to a republican. majority or for the decision itself to fly the flag only on seventeen designated days a year taken on december third. reflects this change and that seems to be what's troubling loyalists it so because in fact. they simply brings it into line with other british government and civic buildings. the origins of the brotherhood's

billions egypt's ruling is going to stand accused of taking some things from the u.s. government and using the money to provoke violence or protests more on that coming up very shortly this hour an r.v. and. a better stay with us to find out where mixed israeli palestinian couples go to live in the face of discrimination that story of a still to come. this week president obama signed a law or allowing the indefinite detention of u.s. terror suspects without charge or trial the national defense authorization act also delays the closure of the guantanamo prison for another year veteran congressman dennis kucinich thinks that the move is part of a pattern undermining democracy. right now we're much more of a garrison and a garrison plus a powerful military which keeps asserting itself globally and it doesn't make america any safer and frankly doesn't make the world safer we're spending upwards

of six hundred billion dollars for an expanded pentagon presence for more war in afghanistan and for proliferation of war in in yemen and somalia and other places we have a lot of problems here at home that we're not taking care of we have massive unemployment people are losing our homes people are losing their retirement security and i continue to say that we have to start emphasizing taking care of things here at home instead of developing a bigger footprint around the world as far as our military presence. the high price of x. rated diplomacy had a line that one during an ambassador to colombia loses his job after a christmas orgy with prostitutes is held in the embassy even though it's reported he wasn't even there for the fun. and many statue of hitler erected in a former warsaw ghetto sparked outrage from locals who say it's an insult to all nazi victims the full story at r.t.

dot com. celebrating in his new homeland after being handed his very own russian passport following dinner with vladimir putin the movie icon left his native france over what he called a punishing tax rates pushed on the rich by the new president a radio station in paris has claimed five thousand french citizens of fled the country since francois hollande took office in part thanks to his tax policies and just like to point to one of the countries they'd be moving to russia with only my colleague. sean thomas about what the largest country on earth has to offer new migrants let's look at the taxes and that's the question at hand right now if you look at russia at the current laws we have

a flat tax rate here of thirteen percent in fact france and germany they both have complicated tax code if you look at france the forty one percent right now up to forty one percent in germany up to forty five percent as opposed to russia thirteen percent so you can see it's a very attractive to come to russia but if this new law comes into effect in france that mark for france goes up to seventy five percent making russia even more attractive so you know why the super rich would be wanting to move over here instead but certainly there when it comes to the global meltdown that we've been seeing for years particularly twenty twelve was not a. for the eurozone or for much of the world indeed but somehow russia managed to avoid the global economic crisis didn't it that is certainly the case in fact it is one of the brics countries which means it is one of the emerging markets in the world but if you look at what's been happening around europe in fact in the past year we've been seeing the austerity protests we've been seeing people coming to the streets who are looking for jobs and in fact the unemployment rate's if you

look at greece twenty six percent if you look at the e.u. in general the average there eleven percent if you look at the unemployment rate in russia only six point four percent so you can see there are more jobs to be had here less people looking for work less of a dire situation but it's also an emerging market it is a diversifying market things here relatively much more stable than in the rest of europe certainly a lot of people saying there's an awful lot of opportunity here right here in russia the biggest country on the planet interesting that the united nations is actually taking a moment to appraise russia's immigration policies that what's what about well certainly if you look at the numbers the most recent numbers in fact show that russia is the second most desirable country for immigrants to come to only second to the united states in fact in fact it can be a little bit confusing because people look at the numbers about moscow being one of the most expensive cities for ex-pats to live with that's for ex-pats and it is true things here it is a big city it can be expensive but if you look at average cost of food it's cheaper than the rest of europe much cheaper to live here for gas prices as well now keep

in mind moscow russia you know this is the biggest city in the countries of course things are going to be a little bit more expensive here but russian general things cheaper than in europe regardless of that it's just a fun place to be and certainly is in fact the arts in the culture of the entertainment here moscow is famous for its nightlife but if you look past that we have famous musicians coming from russia famous artists famous history architecture all of that here but i'm going to say russia has always had this balance between east and west right so if you look at the orthodox culture and the western cultures i think that the real reason people come here is that you get two christmases and you get two new years. and as well you could soon find itself at a political crossroad later this hour in the ultimatums the opposition is issuing in case the longtime leader hugo chavez fails to attend his own inauguration for health reasons. egypt's muslim brotherhood is under investigation for taking billions of dollars from the u.s. before even coming to power lines also allege the brotherhood used the money to fund

armed cells involved in sparking violence or protests one of the lawyers that found the complaint yes aside hamas says the money was all about preserving interests. what started this money might have been beneficial for both the american side promises support for the muslim. and promised to secure american interests in egypt namely a u.s. air force base in the province of. dealing with the brotherhood as a political authority is permissible for funding it before it had even come to power is not we also believe that the brotherhood run cells tasked with provoking public unrest and violence are protests the former active member who quit the brotherhood spoke of such groups which carried out armed operations for the muslim brotherhood benefit. now could be a symbol for peace in the tribal region but a village open to mixed israeli palestinian couples is now straining under the load

of all those who want to move there are reports now on the challenges of a village seemingly forgotten by the israeli government. israelis cannot live in the west bank and most palestinians cannot live in israel which leaves those israelis and palestinians who want to share a home out in the cold. one hundred my husband this from have broken i'm from jerusalem i found work in jerusalem and used to live there with my children but without my husband because he is not allowed to live there he couldn't visit me even once at the end of each week i would go to have been to visit him but lived like that for four years well come to no man's land a neighborhood that is technically part of jerusalem but in reality is on the palestinian side of the security wall that israel has built some two thousand mixed couples live here i think. the problem of cooper arc up is that so many people are immigrating to the area because they have to so in four years we've had

a growth of thirty five thousand people it's become more crowded than gaza. so hair and stuff one came to live here six years ago with their three children but life in the village is far from ideal the schools are overcrowded garbage is collected only once a week and there's little fresh water so if one is old and sick and basic health services are hard to come by. my husband and my daughter don't have israeli i.d.'s and they can't pass through the checkpoints they need special permission which is very difficult to get the far curb is in north jerusalem eighty two percent of the land belongs to jerusalem eighteen percent to the west bank residents pay taxes to the israeli government but because the area lies outside the israeli wall israel is slow to provide services the municipality says that many of the people living in far cub are doing so illegally and so it's not obliged to provide them with services it also says that the security wall makes it more complicated to carry out

the services and the state needs to give it more money there have been small victories though residents took the municipality to court and one garbage collection at least for now should be more frequent this is the minimal doubling from them it's really they deal with us as an enemy as an arab in jerusalem so we have to carry that because we have our right we will be the text of everything and the suffering from that phones and internet access are limited because palestinian companies are not allowed to install lines in a so-called israeli area and because the israeli police won't come here law enforcement is scarce and living in the middle of it all are couples and suffer and they nearly want to be together but politics and division are making that more and more difficult every day police here r.t. jerusalem. the british prime minister david cameron says his willing to fight to keep control of the falkland islands he said his government has the weapons and

will to defend the territory from any argentinean advances britain has a military base on the islands in the argentinian prime minister has called for negotiations over the disputed territory the two nations fought a war over in one thousand nine hundred two a referendum will be held in march when the islanders will vote to decide their nationality. hundreds of missing and thousands more have been displaced as fires rage across australia winds and very high temperatures nationwide provided optimal conditions for dangerous bushfires to break out evacuation centers in tasmania have been inundated. and in fact the crowds led by a coalition of political parties have protested against a nine percent rise in fuel tax twenty five people were hurt in the demonstrations and several vehicles were set on fire it's the fifth time since two thousand and nine that the government has hight the duty on fuel. venezuela's president hugo chavez who's currently battling cancer may be too ill to attend his own swearing in

ceremony on thursday his political rivals are demanding a new election if he doesn't show up to be inaugurated for his fourth term of office but jim political analyst eric draitser believes the opposition is taking advantage of the situation to undermine the government. what is important is the fact that the opposition is using this as a political mechanism by which they can try to deal agenda mys the government in venezuela remember that in two thousand and two when the united states and spain and other powers around the world collaborated in conspired to oust chavez in an illegal coup and we saw what the significance of chavez was that he had a base of support on the streets in that country that could not be shaken by an international force and so what they're attempting to do is to use his health situation to break apart that base of support and to convince people that chavez is unable to serve the the constitution in venezuela allows for wiggle room here it

does not say that just because he can't be at the inauguration that there has to be new elections that is what the opposition is trying to create something they're not explicit they're trying to make it explicit. it seems everyone wants a piece of the bench while beijing is the region with riches the western media focuses on human rights abuses this kind of went to gauge the feeling that. the communist party of china a slogan so widespread in tibet it's even displayed on taxis here everything is an ambiguous mix of modern technology and tradition communism and religion. w. is eighty six his son is a buddhist monk but ten years ago this elderly man joined the communists to do on the party is breathing new life into our nation in the margins your time in the capital where shops and businesses sit beneath the monasteries on the hills this is

quite a normal scene for us every day believers gather in the city center to pray right outside what is traditions are very strong here but at the same time chinese national red flags are hanging almost on every poll and every building as a constant reminder which country tibet is a part of. for decades china has been accused of occupying tibet and destroying its culture human rights organizations report numerous abuses there on a daily basis some are even willing to go to the most extreme measures in protest in almost all instances protests are put down through violence so chinese security personnel will come in and more use violence to to basically stop place protests we commend to two cases where the chinese state news lethal force against tibetans in one town fifteen people were shot local authorities denial of geishas of human

rights violations claiming the so often malaysians are organized from abroad accusing the worst of a full scale media assault on china the united states has been using that for. six decades now and says the truman administration co-opted to fight communism and they will continue this because their modus operandi these days seems to be human rights violations over the years china's spent over sixty billion euros dollars to build schools roads and water supplies as well as developing industries from beer factories to cultural workshops. outside the capital in one of tibet's most ancient temples when we ask the monk what he thinks of the exile of their spiritual leader the dalai lama he surprisingly said he didn't hear. the government supplies clothes food and other necessities not the dalai lama i couldn't care less where he was assessing tibet is

not easy even on the ground it's hard to see what's true and what's being deliberately shown to foreigners but what's crucial for the next generation of tibetans is that the mix of ancient traditions and beijing's billions off. the skin off r.t. to bet. you've been watching the weekly here on r.t. i'll be back with a news team with morphine half an hour from now in the meantime we take you to a russian orthodox village built by a priest to his adopted children all seventy of them stay with. science technology innovation all the.